Texas Parks & Wildlife, Volume 47, Number 1, January 1989 Page: 2
48 p. : col. ill.View a full description of this periodical.
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Stalking the Champion Trees
Article by Mike Blakely, Photos by Leroy Williamson
he rushing waters of the Frio River swept
the axles of my pickup as I drove across to the Burditt Ranch. WJ. Burditt
saw me coming and parked his tractor in the shade. He didn't seem
thrilled to see me, but he was courteous and I could tell he had resigned
himself to tolerating another tree ogler.
The largest known tree in Texas, Burditt's baldcypress, spreads its
boughs over the ranch's rocky soils. As Burditt eased into my truck with an
economy of motion developed through more than half a century of
ranching, he pointed the way to the state champion baldcypress.
A dirt road led us back to the Frio, where we turned upstream and
began passing dozens of baldcypress trees lining the flanks of the river.
A cement picnic table stood beside a particularly massive specimen.
"That's a pretty big one right there, isn't it?" I asked.
"It's a fair-sized one," replied Burditt. "A pretty good sprout."
We passed a fallen colossus that had stretched its woody carcass com-
pletely across the river to form a natural dam. Above it the Frio was calm,
and along that stretch stood the largest tree in Texas. It was just six paces
from the crystalline waters the day I visited, but the mud stains on its bark
suggested it had recently stood in the flow of floodwater.
There are still some state champs to be found.
W J. Burditt stands beside the state champion baldcypress
on his ranch. This is the largest known tree in Texas.2
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Texas. Parks and Wildlife Department. Texas Parks & Wildlife, Volume 47, Number 1, January 1989, periodical, January 1989; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1568806/m1/4/?q=Lamar+University: accessed June 7, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.